Since 2000, RoboChallenge has served hundreds of students on the California Central Coast. Competitions have included Tug O' War, Drag Race, Sumo, Catapult, Line Following, and others.
See the Rules and Challenges page for more information.

RoverChallenge

Using Mindstorms NXT to build Robot Rovers for Exploration

What if you could use LEGO Mindstorms to build a Robot Rover, that could carry a camera, go into an unknown terrain, and engage in remote sensing and exploration? You can!!!

RoverChallenge is a framework that enables students who are experienced with LEGO robotics to design their own Robot Rovers, and program them to be remote controlled.

Challenge Overview: Your group will design, build, and program a robot that will be controlled by a wireless controller. The Robot will be able to carry a tethered camera housing (it has a wire attached) into a covered maze. The robot must be able to find and retrieve hidden “cargo” from the maze, and extract the cargo from the maze. There may also be “guardians” that may need to avoided or overcome

A rover with the camera housing attached

Guidelines:

  • All Robots will use the same remote, with 4 touch sensors.
  • The Cargo will all be the same size and design
  • All robots will use the same camera housing, which must be easily attached and removed from the robot.
  • The robot will only be able to get information about its surroundings from the camera, and from sensors on the robot. Remember, you won’t be able to watch the robot, you’ll only be able to see what the robot sees.
  • The Robot must have a way of grabbing and moving the cargo.
  • The robots will only be able to have a maximum of 3 motors.

Resources:

Mindstorms NXT Programs

(Download these programs and open them using the LEGO Mindstorms software.)

The Cargo

The Camera Housing- with iSight Camera and 10 meter firewire cable

Rover wthout Camera

Rover with Camera

©2006 All Content on this site was created by RoboChallenge Director Luke Laurie: mrlaurie@yahoo.com